


in all the worlds

by sinequanon



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Dimensions, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, M/M, UraIchi Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-19 23:33:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18980620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinequanon/pseuds/sinequanon
Summary: When war and other poor choices manage to destabilize not one, but all of the universes, the Soul King decides to take a “salt the earth” approach and rebuild from the ground up, using Kurosaki Ichigo as his champion.





	in all the worlds

**Author's Note:**

> So, funny story. This technically wasn’t written for UraIchi Week, but it also kind of was. I wasn’t around for the event last year (and I’m not a joiner, anyway), but when I came back to Ao3 after months away, the UraIchi Week prompts helped me finally get a couple of troublesome ideas of of my head and onto paper. I wrote this as a thank you for that help.
> 
> By the time I got ready to post this, it occurred to me that the event was probably going to happen again, so I did a little digging, and here we are. I have some other stories in progress that I could twist to fit this week’s prompts, but I have no idea when they might be done. It’s also theoretically possible that I could twist each of them to fit under the umbrella of this first story. I don’t guarantee it’s going to happen, but I’m planning to try. I’ll be marking this as complete, but feel free to subscribe because I think there’s about an 80% chance I’ll add to it.

For you, in my respect, are all the world.  
Then how can it be said I am alone  
When all the world is here to look on me?  
—William Shakespeare’s _A Midsummer Night's Dream_

_ <> <> <> <> _

It’s strange, being in his childhood bedroom again. It looks mostly like he remembers, but there are little things—unnoticeable to anyone who isn’t him—that remind him that this room, this house, isn’t the one he left behind.

The truth is that Ichigo _likes_ the changes, even if no one else knows better.

That being said, it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that the crack along Ichigo’s wall is not a fashion statement; this house fared much better than the rest of Karakura. From what anyone can tell, there are no protective seals of any kind over the place, so it’s a miracle that it’s still standing.

(It’s another reminder that their only choice is to start over.)

Someone snores from somewhere in the house, once every few seconds. Ichigo fights the urge to find that person and ask them to quiet down, even though he knows that whoever destroyed this town is long gone—the Soul King wouldn’t have sent them here otherwise. Old habits are hard to break, though, and Ichigo has to do some careful maneuvering to get around his bedmate and the half-dozen other people sleeping in his bedroom to make it into the hallway.

He’s not going to wake up the snorer or anything, he just...wants to make sure that everyone is okay. It won’t take long at all.

It’s surprisingly easy to move through the house, and luck must be with him because no one seems to wake during his walk. He checks on the snorer—a younger, softer Hiyori, on an older, more jaded Shinji with a jagged scar across his gut, on Komamura with a human face. Most of his companions are enough like their counterparts that sometimes Ichigo forgets that Kira-7 joined squad thirteen instead of three, and Hitsugaya-9 took months to trust him because the Ichigo in his world was a bloodthirsty tyrant. He nearly cried when Chad was the fourth person he found; he doesn't know how to feel about the fact that he hasn't yet found a Rukia or Renji.

(Even with the Soul King guiding him, it feels more like a burden than a blessing, sometimes.)

By the time he returns to his bedroom, Kisuke has shifted from his side to the middle of the bed, and Ichigo has to spend a good five minutes fighting for his spot—and his portion of the blanket—before he's comfortable.

(It never ceases to amaze him that someone so standoffish when he's awake can be so affectionate in his sleep.)

The man in question presses even closer to Ichigo and throws a possessive arm around his waist for good measure. It’s something that his Kisuke hadn’t gotten around to doing yet, despite the fact that their relationship had been an open secret. Kisuke had never publicly acknowledged that the two of them were anything more than friends, and Ichigo had been fine with that. Now, though, when he was trying to start over, he can't help but wonder what might have been if they had let themselves be...more.

This Kisuke is _almost_ the same, so even though it still hurts, Ichigo can't help but be grateful that the Soul King gave him his scientist, first.

“You're thinking too hard,” the man's voice mumbles into his neck. “Careful, or you'll wake the whole house.”

That makes Ichigo smile, even if his bedmate can't see it. It's a common complaint—that he thinks too hard—one he hears every day from at least one person. He suspects there's some sort of Ichigo-wrangling schedule, though everyone he's asked has denied it. “Sorry,” he offers, and rolls over to find a bleary-eyed blonde watching him. “I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe.”

Someone on the floor snorts (from what Ichigo can see, everyone still _looks_ asleep, so he'll have to find the eavesdropper and glare at them tomorrow), and Kisuke reaches forward to trace a careful thumb against Ichigo's cheek.

“We're safe, and even if we weren’t, we trust you to make it so. After all, you’ve already saved us once.”

That wasn't true, though, because it’s the Soul King who decides when and where he goes. Ichigo just...goes.

No matter what Kisuke says, the past few months have not been kind to any of them. They're almost constantly moving, darting in and out of universes and tearing people from everything they've ever known. It's true that most of them were taken out of dire situations, but that doesn't necessary make the changes any easier to bear.

The blonde must see something in his face because he sighs and readjusts them so that Ichigo's head is resting against Kisuke's shoulder. After a moment, the young man feels another set of fingers deliberately tangling with his.

“My Ichigo died in the final battle against Yhwach,” Kisuke speaks softly into the quiet, and it's only because they're pressed together that Ichigo can feel the tension in the body beneath him. “He was a good man; he sacrificed himself so that Yoruichi and I could escape. But I think he knew he couldn't win, and he let himself get killed anyway. There's a part of me that hates him for that, especially since Yoruichi died the next day.”

Ichigo squeezes his hand.

“You're still moving forward,” Kisuke adds, “even though it hurts, and you're taking me—all of us—with you. It's a debt we can never repay.”

“But—”

“Ichigo,” he begins, and shifts them around again because he wants the younger man to be looking him in the eye for this, “this is our second chance. _Let us take it._ ”

For a moment, everything pauses, and Ichigo can tell that Kisuke is not the only one listening for his response.

Ichigo thinks about his family, and his friends, and everything that came with meeting Rukia. He thinks of his dad's words about letting go of guilt and living well, that day at his mom's grave. He thinks about starting over, and being a man his mother will be proud of. He leans forward to press a gentle kiss to his lover’s lips.

“Okay,” he agrees.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t come right out and say it, but Ichigo is moving back and forth between both time and space while the Soul King picks out his favorite versions of people, based on qualifications known only to him.
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!


End file.
